White Rabbits have teamed up with NPR for the premiere of the beautiful and unsettling video for “Heavy Metal,” the recently unveiled opening track from the band’s upcoming third album, Milk Famous. Directed by Andrew Droz Palermo, the “Heavy Metal” video can be viewed below.

Preceded by first single “Temporary,” Milk Famous will be released March 6 on the tbd label (with a vinyl release March 13 on White Iris) and can be pre-ordered directly from the band at the following web address: http://whiterabbitsmusic.com/milkfamous

“Drumbeats, not guitars or keyboards, come first for White Rabbits… That choice puts a spring, even a swagger, in the step of songs that could otherwise slip into indie-rock alienation”–THE NEW YORK TIMES

Brooklyn-based, Missouri-bred White Rabbits have unveiled “Heavy Metal” (download below), the opening track of the eagerly anticipated follow-up to 2009’s critically acclaimed It’s Frightening (hailed by Jon Pareles of THE NEW YORK TIMES as “an American sound that fortifies its brains with muscle”). The band’s third album, Milk Famous, will be released March 6 on the tbd label (with a vinyl release March 13 on White Iris) and will consist of the following songs:

Heavy Metal
I’m Not Me
Hold It To The Fire
Everyone Can’t Be Confused
Temporary
Are You Free
It’s Frightening
Danny Come Inside
Back For More
The Day You Won The War
I Had It Coming

The bulk of Milk Famous was recorded over the course of 2011 in Austin TX, and produced by Mike McCarthy with the exception “Back For More,” which was produced by the band’s own Stephen Patterson and Alex Even and recorded last November at Meth Beach in Philadelphia.

Milk Famous’ release will also be preceded by first single “Temporary.”

With a live performance described by ESQUIRE as one of “9 Shows A Man Should See,” White Rabbits have confirmed their first dates of 2012. They will be joined by The War On Drugs and Tennis on select dates.

19 TRACK DOUBLE CD/DOWNLOAD CHRONOLOGICALLY COMPILES ALL COMMISSIONED REMIXES OF TRACKS FROM THE KING OF LIMBS

Throughout the summer of 2011, Radiohead has been releasing a series of seven 12-inch singles featuring remixes of tracks from its current album The King Of Limbs by electronic artists and producers who have been exciting and inspiring the members of the band.

The 12-inches, released to independent retailers every two weeks since July 5, will be collected on the 19 track double CD TKOL RMX 1234567. The double CD/download, which brings together all 19 remixes in chronological order, will be released on tbd Records on October 11.

WATERS, the new project from former Port O’Brien frontman Van Pierszalowski, has announced a new run of US tour dates in August and September. The dates will begin next month with a two-show stint supporting Vetiver: August 10th at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, CA, and August 11th at Sophia’s Thai Kitchen in Davis, CA. WATERS will then meet up with Mister Heavenly on August 18th in Portland, OR, at Branx and support the band through September 2nd in San Diego, CA, at Bar Pink. The shows all come in advance of WATERS’ debut album, Out In The Light, which will be released September 20th, 2011 on TBD Records. A full itinerary is below.

Last month following a European tour supporting Wye Oak, WATERS played their first US shows at Brooklyn’s Northside Festival in addition to a headlining show at the Mercury Lounge. The young band’s live show made an impression, with Brooklyn Vegan writing of their set supporting Deervana at Brooklyn Bowl: “If the recordings sound as good as the songs did at Brooklyn Bowl, then Out In The Light is definitely an album to look out for.” WATERS also premiered the first MP3 off Out In The Light, “For The One,” in late May on Stereogum and the song is available as a free download here. An album teaser video set to the track can also be seen here.

In the spring of last year, creative and personal differences led to the collapse of Port O’Brien and Pierszalowski moved to Oslo, Norway, seeking solace and space. After some time, he began writing again and to fuel his inspiration further, spent most of the year traveling: to Alaska, where he’d spent summers as a teenager fishing salmon with his father; to California, where he’d grown up in a seaside town off Highway 1; and eventually to New York, where in Brooklyn he endured relentless blizzards. The new songs Pierszalowski wrote were intensively thought-out and pieced together over the year, a new contrast to the frequently loose, punchy anthems of his previous band. Wanting a bigger sound for his new project (which by now he’d dubbed WATERS) than he could create on his own, he headed back to Oslo – where his new life had first begun to take shape – and put together a band. They practiced every day for two months before heading to Dallas, TX, to record with producer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Explosions In The Sky, The Walkmen) and finished Out In The Light over a mere 10 day recording session.

Out In The Light has a louder, fuller, and more aggressive and raw sound that’s unlike anything Pierszalowski has written before. Mixing fuzzy, pealing guitars and crashing drums with dynamic, indelible melodies, the album ranges from barreling, grunge-sheathed pop (“For The One”, “Back To You”), to easy, haunting tracks that soar (“O Holy Break Of Day”, “Out In The Light”); from rolling, catchy anthems (“Abridge My Love”, “Take Me Out To The Coast”), to a quieter and ruminative, aching beauty (“Ones You Had Before”, “Mickey Mantle”). Throughout, Pierszalowski’s sanded, reedy tenor sings about starting over, jealousy, and yearning for an easy, steady life, the intimacy and emotional intensity underlined by Congleton’s stark production.

Radiohead announced via their website today that they will be releasing a series of summer remixes on 12″ vinyl. You can listen to the 1st of the 12″s, Caribou remixing Little by Little, and a remix of Lotus Flower by Jacques Greene, below:

From the band:

The first in a series of remixes on 12″ vinyl will be released on Monday 4th July (or Tuesday in the US & Canada).

The series kicks off with Caribou remixing Little by Little, and a remix of Lotus Flower by Jacques Greene, both of which we we’re really excited about.

Hopefully you will find the vinyl in your local independent record shop, but if not, you can buy by mailorder here from the 4th. If you don’t have a record player, digital versions will be available here, here, here and here. Or you can just listen to them here:

More 12″ remixes will be released every couple of weeks over the summer until we run out of remixes… or summer. On the next one we’ve got Nathan Fake (Morning Mr Magpie) and remixes of Bloom by Mark Pritchard.

Other Lives previously announced dates with The National and The Decemberists as well as a tour with S. Carey (Bon Iver) in support of their forthcoming album Tamer Animals out May 17th on tbd records. New dates are now announced with The Rosebuds starting June 15th in Asheville, NC with more dates to be announced (see list of all dates below). Additionally, tbd records has now partnered with boutique vinyl label White Iris (www.whiteiris.tv) to release the new album. The band is streaming three new songs from Tamer Animals on their site as well as a free download of album track “For 12.”

Unlike their self-titled debut—a studio-bound effort that was produced by Beck’s longtime drummer, Joey Waronker— Tamer Animals was tracked in the privacy of the band’s own space in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Waronker eventually mixed the entire affair and sanded down its edges, but it took Other Lives 14 months to get to that point. We’re not talking about lazy Sunday sessions here, either. More like 11 songs that were carefully sculpted over time, with
certain sounds creeping up when the record called for them, and nothing that’s forced or rushed.

There’s no point in trying to unearth an obvious “single” in Other Lives’ second album, Tamer Animals. Here’s a better idea instead: succumb. Let every last song wash over you like proper long players once did, from the swift strings and pulsating horns—a technique learned from old Philip Glass LPs—of “Dark Horse” to the richly orchestrated denouement of “Heading East,” a cut that could have been cribbed from the early instrumental sessions of Other Lives’ old band Kunek.

“The core of that band is still with me,” says frontman Jesse Tabish, who founded Kunek with cellist Jenny Hsu and drummer Colby Owens. “In a lot of ways, it’s still what I gravitate towards, songwriting wise.”

Unlike their self-titled debut—a studio-bound effort that was produced by Beck’s longtime drummer, Joey Waronker— Tamer Animals was tracked in the privacy of the band’s own space in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Waronker eventually mixed the entire affair and sanded down its edges, but it took Other Lives 14 months to get to that point.

We’re not talking about lazy Sunday sessions here, either. More like 11 songs that were carefully sculpted over time, with certain sounds creeping up when the record called for them, and nothing that’s forced or rushed.

“Every sound has a purpose without being too indulgent,” explains Tabish. “There’s nothing like, ‘Hey, let’s rock out on this!’ It’s homemade in a way. For better or for worse, it’s all our sound.”

That sound amounts to one hell of a sweeping listen—an atmosphere, a mood, a state of mind. So while you might find yourself going back to the minor-key melodies of “Dust Bowl III” or the Morricone-caliber arrangements of “Old Statues” more often than not, it’s all part of a greater whole. And since Tabish prefers treating his vocals like an instrument, the lyrics are left open to interpretation.

To be honest, they don’t even matter in the end. What matters is how Tamer Animals makes you feel; how it aims to hit you in the chest…hard, like the Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Sigur Rós LPs that made Tabish want to write this kind of music in the first place. (If you can believe it, he played in punk bands as a kid and didn’t resume the piano lessons he started in third grade until he was 18.)

“I’d rather us be an ensemble than a rock band,” he says. “That’s my goal—to get away from those traditional ideas. It’s not a strength in numbers kinda thing, either, where 12 people are on stage and five of them are playing the same melody. When the music calls for that many players, we’ll go there. We’ll destroy the band itself.”